Well, why not? “Community” now handily implies group solidarity or mass collaboration across any unstructured population—enabled by global interconnectivity.

(Photo: Shutterstock)

But when the ancient Romans invented the concept (communitas), would they ever have imagined so many current “community” business models? Gig Economy platforms, open source movements and organizations, sustainable value chains, learning networks: Great Caesar’s Ghost!

But What Does It Mean, And How To Do It?

But today’s corporate chase of “community” is no guarantee of strategic success. Too many leaders are trying to build (or reshape) a business around the concept without understanding what it means. Or how to ensure that a networked community both flourishes and supports business goals.

So how to do that?

I turned to a leading practitioner and networked community builder in his own right, Charlie Brown, Founder and CEO of Context Partners.

Charlie has worked on networked communities for some fifteen years. We first met in 2008 when he was running Ashoka Changemakers, a pioneering innovation community of social entrepreneurs. Charlie left to launch Context Partners in 2010; the Portland (OR)-based company now works with leading edge enterprises on these kind of strategies. He’s built a lot, seen a lot, and has plenty of smart thinking to offer.

Context Partners Provides Context

I began by asking this CEO of Context Partners for, well, some context: “Why are ‘networked communities’ such a big deal for strategy today?”

“Because of three fundamental shifts all around us—touching everybody. Technology is the enabler but the real changes are social, psychological and organizational.”

“The first shift is ubiquitous information: everything more transparent, everyone more specialized. Second is identity. Everyone now wants to engage with companies, organizations or products that reinforce who they are. We’re all trying to connect ourselves with particular values, and something bigger than our own lives.”

“Third is power. Just because you’re atop a hierarchy, doesn’t mean you’re the smartest anymore. Structure-based coercion and transactions are giving way to relationships. Value is increasingly created by ‘horizontal work,’ connecting smart and passionate people across boundaries, achieving greater scale of talent.

“The three shifts are positioning ‘community’ as the new nexus of strategy; and of course it no longer requires geographic proximity. The flow and desire of people, virtually and across boundaries, towards different kinds of ‘belonging’ is creating new business opportunities for savvy leaders.”

Terminology Matters

I signaled time-out. “How do you define a ‘networked community?’”

Charlie smiled. “Start first with just ‘community:’ simply a group of people with shared characteristics or interests. They might live in the same neighborhood or be distributed across wider geography.”

“Essentially a passive asset with collective potential?” I asked.

“Yes. Passive because they aren’t necessarily working together, nor have they found their commonality. A network changes that—technology connecting people, making visible shared opportunities. Networks can structure collective action towards greater purpose. Networks bring a community alive.”

“When a community is activated this way, it becomes potentially valuable for a company’s strategy. If the company authentically embraces the goals of the group, the willingness of people to take action can magnify what the company itself is trying to achieve—by affiliating brand, products or services.’”

Designing A Strategy

“OK,” I probed. “How does a business leader design a networked community strategy?”

“Three key elements. First, shared purpose, as described. Once you identify a potential community—customers or other stakeholders—a leader must ask, ‘Why would these people want to join and work together?' And then, ‘How can this be connected to my company, my brand, or the values we want to stand for?’ Your employees are in the mix too—they also become part of the community.”

Structuring And Incentives

“The second element is organizational: how can you use networks to foster relationships, share information, and provide new roles for people as they start to work together? Networks mobilize action without hierarchy.”

“Finally, incentives for membership. Traditionally these have been monetary, tangible (e.g. coupons or T-shirts). But intangibles are better for sustaining a community: fostering common cause; recognizing members’ community ‘identities,’ reinforcing the satisfaction of learning or contributing to some greater good.

“Our client Maggie Wilderotter was its visionary CEO. She saw the opportunity to differentiate Frontier from bigger players (Verizon, AT&T) with a networked community strategy. The strategy combined virtual and geographical concepts: it actually became a ‘community of communities.’

“The strategy began when Maggie realized that the rural areas and smaller cities of America—Frontier’s historical service footprint—were wrestling with two things today: first, finding their place in today’s urbanized society; second how to capitalize on ambitious, innovative people working to improve their local economies and livelihoods.

“Maggie then had a powerful insight: if Frontier could accelerate this initiative—across multiple locations at the same time-- it would eventually benefit her business too. More prosperity drives sales and usage of telecom. Her slogan: ‘When local communities flourish, we flourish too.’ We worked with Frontier to create a network of innovating communities with a shared purpose to magnify the impact.”

A Networked Community of Innovation

“To pursue that, we helped Frontier launch a $10 million innovation prize, challenging interested American townships and small cities to submit a plan for bettering economic and social health of their own communities. About 350 locales have been competing. ‘America’s Best Communities’ (ABC) has now gone through several rounds, with eight semi-finalists recently selected. The plans submitted across the network have been creative and far-ranging: new civic engagement initiatives, neighborhood rebuilding programs, new regional tourism strategies, business-university entrepreneurship, etc.”

“The contest has created a networked virtual community of civic-minded innovators, motivated by shared goals. With Frontier’s support that ‘the rising tide lifts all boats,’ contestants have been learning from one another, making new connections across geographies, borrowing and building on ideas shared in the competition. This broader community of communities has supported Frontier’s business strategy—and vice-versa.”

Positive Results

In subsequent conversation, Wilderotter (now retired, but still active in the competition) reinforced this point: “It’s still early, and we have to keep measuring specific impact--but we have many anecdotal positives. The ABC process has definitely improved customer relationships and our brand reputation; also increased sales in the regions.”

John Puskar, Frontier’s ABC Director noted other benefits. “There have been no losers in the contest. Even cities eliminated in early rounds are still working and making progress on their projects. Though Frontier has always been engaged with customers, the contest nationalized a process of working locally and building win-win relationships.”

Charlie Brown spoke of more intangible effects.

“The competition transformed the identity of Frontier managers and employees. They now feel more responsible for these communities, and contribute beyond just doing their day jobs. It’s engaging them in their work as never before. Frontier, the local community volunteers, and other commercial partners are helping themselves by helping each other, and also the small cities and towns in America. The network is accelerating the innovation for everyone.”

Six Principles

My conversation with Frontier executives and Charlie Brown surfaced six general principles, helpful for any leader developing a networked community strategy.

1.Don’t over-emphasize technology.

Charlie warned of a familiar pitfall. “Technology is only an enabler.You can’t build and leverage a networked virtual community by just deploying some new social media. Or running a hashtag contest about your product. That won’t create meaningful long-term relationships critical to strategy.”

2. First engage the community about opportunity.

Maggie Wilderotter began ABC with “a listening tour”—talking to employees, customers and other leaders in rural areas and cities. She was “uplifted by how much work was underway by people collaborating to improve their local lives.” Context Partners built on that effort, as Charlie Brown noted, by “analyzing who these people really were, what they cared about, and how the existing efforts could be taken to greater scale. ‘Community’ starts with that understanding—by talking to the people themselves.”

3. Strengthen community by catalyzing collective action.

Though shared purpose inspires a community, getting people working together is what launches it and makes it come alive. Frontier built momentum in ABC when its regional managers began to convene interested citizens, business leaders, and other civic leaders, to start the problem-solving among potential contestants. John Puskar recalls how “the process quickly became infectious after that, spreading from one competing township to the next.”

4. Deepen community by helping members discover new roles.

Brown reflected on a more subtle behavioral pattern that shapes “community culture.”

“When collective effort develops, people slip into informal but identifiable ‘roles’—what they like to be and what they’re good at. Unlike their titles at the office, these reflect how people want to be seen in the informal working group. Leaders need to nurture these role identities as they emerge.”

“Some people become ‘builders’—organizing community tasks; others become ‘innovators,’ sparking new ideas; still others become ‘connectors’—helping members develop relationships with one another. As ABC grew, we watched these and other roles emerge, both locally and across the larger meta-community.”

5. Your company goals must align with—but be smaller than-- the community’s goals.

To align your company’s interests with a broader community, your tail can’t wag the bigger dog. The higher purpose that motivates community members has to be more meaningful and timeless to them than just your business’s P&L. As a leader, your strategic art is figuring out how to become part of that purpose, without subverting it.

The Frontier CEO was inspired by the self-helping innovation of small cities and rural townships. She saw how Frontier could support a networked renewal process—“we thrive when they thrive”—but understood her company was simply contributing to the larger narrative of people improving their local livelihoods.

Charlie summarized simply: “A community must believe in something that would still have significance in the world, even if your company went away.”

6. Leaders must share and give away power. Despite the initial impetus and funding contributed to ABC, Frontier avoided mandates and control. Company managers were conveners, not decision-makers in the local planning; prizes were awarded by independent judges. Wilderotter emphasized, “We told the cities they could propose whatever they wanted, as long as it improved their quality of life and economic development.”

The former CEO later described her own leadership style, suited to today’s transparent information and horizontal responsibility. “I blended two styles at Frontier: ‘servant leadership’—giving up control, helping others succeed—and ‘relationship leadership’—looking for partners and other leaders, both in the communities and among our local managers, who could be multipliers of my effort.”

Mayor Steve Williams of Huntington, West Virginia, meets with U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and the city's ABC team to discuss plans for the America's Best Communities competition. (Photo: Bryan Chambers/City of Huntington)

Looking Ahead

I finished by asking Charlie Brown about the future of networked community strategies.

“Everything tells us there will only be more. Some industries, certain companies, driven by a need for innovation will lead: technology, sales and marketing companies, healthcare, etc. Community approaches are also exploding in the non-profit world which has the mission to take big risks to solve big social problems.”

“But of course everybody is betting on innovation now. Is there really any company that doesn’t need some competitive edge through better collaboration among customers, partners, employees and other stakeholders? Eventually everyone will drink out of this faucet.”

Members of the ABC team from Statesboro, Georgia team up with Habitat for Humanity to build a home. (Photo: Statesboro ABC Team)

Disclosure: In May 2012, ContextPartners was a client of my consultancy, Brook Manville LLC.